Reminder – EC Consultation on Aviation and Climate Change

The European Commission is currently consulting on how to cut the climate change impacts of aviation. The consultation takes the form of two online questionnaires, one aimed at individuals and the other at organisations, to be completed by Friday 6 May 2005.

It is important that we respond to these documents as it is very likely, based on past experience, that the industry will be asking its employees to complete the questionnaires.

The questionnaire is not onerous and should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete. See link below for on-line form.

Background

Aviation is making a rapidly growing contribution to climate change. In 1990, it accounted for 3.5% of manmade global warming. Between 1990 and 2002, emissions from international aviation increased by 50% (the highest growth recorded by any major sector).

Unchecked, aviation’s contribution to global warming could be as high as 15% by 2050 according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and could be significantly higher still if measures such as Kyoto are successful in reducing emissions from other sectors.

If society can achieve a 60% cut in global emissions by 2050 compared to levels in 1990 (a proxy for the minimum action required to stabilise concentrations of emissions in the atmosphere at a level where they no longer pose a dangerous threat), yet takes no action to curb aviation’s growth, the air transport sector alone could account for around two-thirds of these emissions.

Technological reductions will deliver significant improvements but cannot keep pace with the growth in demand for air travel. To tackle this increasing impact, consumers of air travel and the industry must meet the full social and environmental cost of their actions. There are a variety of ‘market-based instruments’ that can, at least in part, deliver this objective ranging from taxation, environmental charging and emissions trading.